Skipper stresses ability alone is never enough

places — it was the same at Dumbarton last season.”

Saturday’s performance left players, management and fans extremely frustrated. As the game slipped away, the team took plenty stick from a travelling support that made up over half the overall attendance.

For Flood, it was not an enjoyable experience but it is certainly not something he is going to moan about.

“The crowd are anxious because they want us to do well and there were a few shouts from them.

“That’s to be expected when you are at a big club like Dundee United.

“You just have to get on with it and the bottom line is we didn’t play well enough and we didn’t win the game, so we can’t complain.

“Down at Dunfermline, the fans were different class and rightly so because we played so well.

“We know if we play like we can they’ll be right behind us and they turn out in big numbers.

“And it’s frustrating that we can play so well in one game and then be poor in the next.

“It was a different type of game from Dunfermline — Livingston were right in our faces from the start.

“Dunfermline was more of a football game and we are more suited to playing footballing teams.

“We need to get our act together because when we play against teams that go more direct we have to be able to manage the games.

“We need to handle those games on a regular basis. We didn’t do that at Livingston.”

Billy King fires an effort at the Livingston goal at the weekend.